Sweden's Dark Tranquillity may have been a half step behind some of the other leaders in the Gothenburg melodic death metal movement (In Flames and The Crown come to mind), but with "Damage Done", Dark Tranquillity are going not only going to get the praise they deserve, but be a hard act to follow in the process.

Their last release, 2000's "Haven" raised a few eyebrows from long-term fans, and while it was a great album from the band, it tended to be a little more on the experimental side of things. "Damage Done" seems to revert back to the aggressive sounds of previous albums, yet pushes them beyond anything they've done before.

'Final Resistance' opens with a deceptive melodic riff, before turning into a full on assault attack of the senses. Vocalist Mikael Stanne seethes anger and hate, while retaining the essential melody that binds the band as one. 'Hours Passed In Exile' has some majestic melodic twin guitar work (Courtesy of Niklas Sundin and Martin Henriksson), while 'Monochromatic Stains' (The first promotional video from the album) returns the aggression. Both 'Single Part Of Two' and 'The Treason Wall' lean heavily on the keyboard sounds, but are counter balanced with the heavy guitars, and riffs most bands would envy. One of the catchier tunes is the unusually titled 'Format C: For Cortex', and has a passing resemblance to Iron Maiden in parts. The title track 'Damage Done' passes with intensity, but 'Cathode Ray Sunshine' is certainly highlighted by its experimentation of subtle keyboards and guitar tones. The experimentation is taken one step further with the brilliant 'The Enemy'. This is defiantly one of the albums many highlights.'?White Noise/Black Silence' again pushes the manic fury, only to dilute itself with the sweeping instrumental 'Ex Nihilo'.

The Gothenburg scene may well be seen as death metals bastard child, but there's a lot to be said about the movement when something as special as "Damage Done" is conceived.

Ladies and gentlemen, Dark Tranquillity is proud to introduce their latest bombshell and you better give it a listen! In the typical current trend to make the now famous Gothenburg sound progress, "Damage Done" is the cornerstone of the arising splendid edifice. The band of Niklas Sundin and Mikael Stanne is still on top of everybody else in terms of creating headbanging riffs and memorable anthems and this album is an endowment to every metal freak on Earth.

An album that is hard to stop listening to...i think is more than perfect!And the keyboards is just astonishing how well collide with the guitars creating an atmosphere that surrounds you and doesnt let you go-i believe that this is what metal is about....a travel to different music dimensions...and dark tranq are the gate to it

Ok, its a great album but I don't love it, especially if I have in mind what they did next
Its full of great songs, so melodic and well written. I also think that with Damage Done their creativity level really went up and it was non-stop from there. They were very creative before but not like this or after this, with the exception of "The Gallery" I should say.

This is the album that really got me into DT...from start to finish it is just EXPLOSIVE..."Final Resistance", "Monochromatic Stains" and "Cathode Ray Sunshine" are some of my favourite songs of all time, period.

AWESOME ALBUM! One of the greatest and my most favourite of the awesomeness that is DARK TRANQUILLITY!